Ahorita — Episodio 1: La Llegada

The Story So Far

A new serial for intermediate learners: Ahorita follows Diego, a twenty-eight-year-old cook from Madrid, as he lands in Mexico City to meet his girlfriend Valentina’s family — and walks straight into the kitchen of her grandmother’s fonda in the Narvarte neighborhood.

Language Highlights

• ahorita — the episode’s title word appears twice, meaning two different things: “in a moment” and “whenever we open”. Its elasticity is the running joke of the whole serial.
• sale vs. vale — Mexico’s “sale” does the job of Spain’s “vale” (OK, deal). Diego’s “vale” marks him as freshly landed, the way Julia’s “laburo” marked her in Madrid in our advanced serial.
• preterite where Spain chats in the present — “¿cómo estuvo el vuelo?”, “lo operaron de la espalda”: everyday Mexican Spanish reaches for the preterite and the impersonal “they”.
• tocar + infinitive — “a Diego le tocó explicar”: whose turn, duty or bad luck something is.
• the tortilla trap — “tortilla” means corn flatbread in Mexico and potato omelette in Spain; the misunderstanding sets up the next episode.
• transatlantic vocabulary — papas/patatas, colonia/barrio, papás/padres, mijo, güero, gachupín: the serial keeps both dialects deliberately side by side.

This is Episode 1 of Ahorita, our serialized story for intermediate learners set in Mexico City — episode 1 is free.